This week marked the opening of FlauntMe, a new site for everything beauty related. With that in mind, I decided this week’s Anime You Should See Before You Die entry should reflect that and deal with beauty. Enter Claymore.

Sure, it’s a bit of a stretch but it does involve beautiful women with big swords so I’m running with it. The premise of Claymore is simple. Set in a medieval fantasy world, there are monsters called Yoma terrorizing villages and other settlements. These beastly bullies have the ability to take the form of humans and can hide right under a town’s nose, effortlessly picking off villagers one by one with no one to stop them. That’s where Claymores come in. Exclusively women, these half human-half yoma warriors wielding large swords (claymores of course), go from town to town ridding townspeople of these evil dopplegangers.

Being part yoma themselves, these feminine death-bringers not only possess incredible strength, speed, and more but also the uncanny ability to sniff out yoma. So while a village may be unaware of who in their town is a yoma, a Claymore can quickly recognize one hiding in the form of a human and dispose of it. But, like Uncle Ben in Spider-Man once said - “with great power, comes great responsibility” and this proves true for Claymores as well. See, despite all the power Claymores have at their disposal, if a Claymore uses too much, too quickly there’s the possibility that they too will become a complete yoma. In fact, they don’t become just any old yoma but rather an “awakened being“, a beast of unfathomable power whose strength dwarfs a Claymore’s many fold. Of course, it’s pretty much a given that eventually a Claymore will become a yoma. When that happens, they themselves are hunted down and exterminated by fellow Claymore.

What sets this anime apart from the simple “search and destroy” premise, with “episodic baddies” to contend with, is the in-depth and tragic story told over the course of the 26 episodes. I’m not going to beat around the bush, people die in this show. A lot. Despite that, even characters that are given little screen-time before they bite the bullet are provided some characterization, allowing you to sympathize and even like them. There’s a large cast in the show and you’re sure to have a few favorites like the sadistic Claymore Ophelia, the strong and masculine Undine, Teresa of the Faint Smile (who goes down in my top 10 most badass characters ever in an anime list), Phantom Miria, Irene, Denueve, Helen, and many more. Of course, the real star of the show is Clare, a young runt-of-the-litter Claymore, who happens to be the lowest ranking among all of them. As the show progresses, it transforms its early “search and destroy” formula to a more developed and focused story with clear motivations and goals for our female lead. Who is Clare? Why did she become a Claymore? And how did she even become one? These are all questions that are answered over the course of the series. Another key character is Raki, who joins Clare in her journeys after his family is slaughtered by yoma. He provides a human touch to the show, acting as our eyes into this frightful world and provides a possible love interest for Clare (although that’s debatable).

If there are any complaints against the show, it’s that the ending is pretty disappointing to say the least. This stems from the show, much like Full Metal Alchemist did, deviating from the manga and providing its own interpretation on how the series should end. Sadly, it’s not as successful as FMA. I’m not going to spoil anything but needless to say it won’t win any best ending awards (there isn’t such a thing but there should be). Despite that gripe, Claymore is a thoroughly enjoyable anime that just about any japanophile should check out. There are sure to be people that will say “oh, the manga was waaaaay better” and to them I say this isn’t manga you need to see before you die but rather anime you should see. So go check it out.